Homophobia Grips Catholic Church

November 9, 1986|By Colman McCarthy, Washington Post Writers Group

WASHINGTON — In college I took four years of theology courses. It was a Jesuit school and the courses were required. But I had one professor, a kindly Irish priest devoted to students, who, in an offhand remark out of class, offered some theological wisdom that surpassed all I had heard or read in school. He said this about God, sin and mercy: There are two kinds of sins, of malice and weakness. And God doesn't bother about the ones of weakness -- nor should we. I would mention the priest's name, except that the Vatican's current enforcers of doctrinal purity might flush him out and revoke his license to think. The Jesuit's view of sin and mercy came to mind last week when the Vatican released this statement attacking homosexuals: ''Even when the practice of homosexuality may seriously threaten the lives and well-being of a large number of people . . . its advocates remain undeterred and refuse to consider the magnitude of the risks involved.''

The Vatican sent its statement to the world's bishops. One of these is Walter Sullivan, the leader of the Richmond, Va., diocese and a compassionate man without a trace of the homophobia now gripping the Vatican. Sullivan wrote the introduction to the 1983 book, A Challenge To Love: Gay and Lesbian Catholics in the Church.

If a copy were sent to the Vatican, it apparently didn't make it past the book burners. Otherwise the harshness of last week's statement would have been tempered by an awareness of the increasing numbers of homosexual priests, sisters and seminarians.

If homosexual behavior or orientation is seen by the Vatican as a moral problem, it has the chance to deal with it first inside the Church. The rectories, seminaries and convents would be the logical places to start. Except for calls to reason by a few progressives like Walter Sullivan, it appears that a rethinking of homosexuality will continue to be akin to heresy. The Vatican's statement is an announcement that it intends first, to avoid Rome's in-house problems and, second, to confront elected officials working to prevent discrimination against gays and lesbians. The statement says deploringly that civil legislation has been ''introduced to protect behavior to which no one has any conceivable right.'' New York City's law, approved by bishops there, is not about behavior but bigotry.

Catholic gays and lesbians will make their own choices about allegiance to so harsh a church leadership. Meanwhile, those outside the church can only wonder: In a world all but paralyzed with wars, starvation, economic chaos, underdevelopment and overpopulation, why is this global institution frittering away its moral force with homophobic rantings? What's the gain? Where is the display of mercy and understanding of weakness that symbolizes the church on its best days?